Here, here...I strive to keep up but don't make my presence felt as I usually just have time to scan the forum these days But I certainly appreciate the effort put by a brave gamer on the AAR section, this section is kept alive by some brave souls You'll never walk alone, Shadowsage

A lonely trail of plasma drifted its’ way from the Maw Research Station. It arced gracefully for several hundred kilometers before detonating silently. The bloom of light and energy expanded, then wavered. On one side it had crossed the event horizon of the Dark Vortex. Within seconds, it was over. The rest of the explosion had dispersed. The part of the blast wave which had fallen into the hole was, as far as any observer could tell, locked in place above the Vortex. Without light escaping to reach sensors, it was as if the energy was frozen in time. Thankfully, the station’s sensors had gathered enough data from the detonation to significantly further their understanding of the reactions taking place. A quark-gluon mass held within fields of energy sufficient to separate them from the universe as a whole. When the missile detonated, a blast front shattered this quarantine and simultaneously heated the particles up to the point where a miniature creation event self-initiates; the quarks within shed gross amounts of energy and radiation.

“Fascinating…” Leontios commented, looking over the raw data. The reaction was capable only under specifically induced circumstances, but when it was… The massive warhead employed was the entire production capacity of the research base for a month. A single missile of that magnitude was capable of erasing any of the Church’s ships from existence, and perhaps causing grievous harm to her space installations. It was hardly practical to produce a single missile per month for the entire navy to use.

The researcher worked quickly; he modified production ratios and tinkered with safety devices for several minutes beneath the soft blue glow of the holograms depicting the firing test. The data for mass-produced missiles capable of being mounted on destroyers would be sent to Fleet Admiral Adolphus and, just to be sure, a second copy would be going to Tannenbaum, who headed the princeps’ guard force. Drafts of the report, recommendations, and schematics were all sent to both.

‘There is no telling what Manuel would do with sole knowledge of weapons of this magnitude…’ Leontios thought with a hint of distaste. Engrossed in his work as he was, he could still feel the political currents pushing him gently about. And if there was one thing that he could not stand, it was being treated as a trophy for the victor. At least the princeps had not done such!

“John Aurellius should know about this project…” he murmured. “Computer, forward messa-“

The garrote coiled tightly around Leontios’s neck.

(A/N: Sorry about the wait, I've been engrossed in Dwarf Fortress the last week or so. -.- )

“…And as such, the technical data contained in the disassembled warship has advanced our knowledge of subspace currents significantly. The increased familiarity with physics (inasmuch as they apply to alternate dimensions) and improved jump calculation programs in development show promise in coaxing additional speed and acceleration from the hyperdrives. Eventually we will have to replace the actual machinery: however, until we reach that limit improved programming will be sufficient.

Leontios’s report to the princeps was unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. The field of hyperdrive refinement was brand-new and entirely unsupported by the current budget. It would be some time before funds and research stations could be allocated towards finishing turning raw operational data and theorems into a runtime which is operable on ships equipped with the Terran Exodus subsystem.

Constantine rubbed his temples and sighed. The head researcher was assaulted shortly after forwarding a report on weapons. Thankfully, security personnel had interrupted the situation before Leontios could be murdered. However the assassin escaped into a sublight parasite cruiser and drifted into the Dark Vortex. Any knowledge about the attack’s motivation was torn apart along with the perpetrator.

Though in critical condition, he was expected to survive. Without his guiding hand for test trials, equipment was damaged and critical information lost on the project to deploy scanning arrays across the breadth of the Empire.

The princeps had his own suspicions where the attempted murder was concerned. John had put forward the hypothesis that a rival researcher had snapped under the pressure his boss had placed upon him to produce a working warhead. Publically, Constantine embraced that explanation whole-heartedly. He had even held two separate masses on the subject of mental illness and the application of sin thereof. But behind closed doors only Guderian and John knew where his true suspicions lie.

“I’m telling you John, Manuel is becoming more aggressive. In the past month alone our agents,” Constantine nodded towards Guderian, who also managed the intelligence network, “have seen a dramatic rise in recruitment for saboteurs. That combined with the Admiral’s previous intention of expanding the fleet regardless of circumstance tells me that he’s ready to escalate further. Assassinating – or rather attempting to assassinate – a vital researcher is a major step towards civil war.”

John sipped from a glass of water. “That may be, but I feel as though Manuel is becoming peripherally aware of how the fleet isn’t turning out to be completely in his corner. I’ve got reports from several captains, including,” the twinkling in his eyes only amplified the effect of his wry smile, “the Komnenos family as a whole. That not only puts Task Force 1 in our corner but gives us the capacity to drop the Emperor’s Own on any potential usurper.

“However, the crew aboard Heresies is split almost completely evenly, with perhaps a slight advantage to Manuel. It goes without saying that the flagship is strong enough to destroy any ship or installation short of Nexus itself, and even that would be a close-run thing. As such I am putting forth an emergency directive through to Licinius; he should be able to provide a construction crew to us that can keep their mouths shut. I want a dozen of the new missile magazines installed at the earliest possible moment. That should ensure Terra will be immune to threat.”

Writing furiously, John asked the princeps, “Majesty, do you want the weapons installed on Nexus base? If we do so there will be very little chance of hiding what we’re doing from spies Manuel has aboard, and even sheer gossip from the crew members ought to let him know something is up. If I may make a suggestion,” he indicated Terra’s sole orbiting natural satellite, “the moon would provide us a much better, controlled environment with all the advantages it entails. Once the construction crews have had experience handling the missiles, we can install additional tubes in Nexus much more smoothly.”

Constantine nodded. “A very good point. Make it so. What else is on the agenda?”

Tannenbaum cleared his throat. “Your son sends his regards, Majesty. He has also passed along a message that research and production facilities orbiting Nurval 4 have reached completion. Additionally,” he permitted himself a wry smile, “Ardent Wayfarer has run into some unexpected trouble with a pirate ship. They had the audacity to think that an ‘unarmed’ exploration ship would be easy pickings. There were no survivors.

“However, Captain Komnenos reports that they have recovered a set of coordinates from the wreckage which indicate some sort of Special Projects Zone; coincidentally the area has long been marked a hazard on our charts. As we speak the ship and her crew are en-route and investigating.

A/N: Hey guys, just letting you know that my laptop is finally giving out. I've done a lot of technical stuff in college (photoshop, smart-boards, etc) that it just wasn't built to handle, and it's going. Damn thing runs really hot and takes forever to do anything. So..... scholarship means I get to order a desktop from Digital Storm! Your dosage of theocratic backstabbing will resume shortly. :)

Hey guys, just an update; the Computer runs like a champ. Sent in my support ticket about getting those Distant Worlds downloads again, and when I do I'll fire up the old workhorse laptop one last time and transfer the savegame. Theocratic Shenanigans will resume shortly. :)

Hey guys, just an update; the Computer runs like a champ. Sent in my support ticket about getting those Distant Worlds downloads again, and when I do I'll fire up the old workhorse laptop one last time and transfer the savegame. Theocratic Shenanigans will resume shortly. :)

Shadows blacker than space flitted between stars. Their presence was marked by the disappearance of entire constellations from the skies of outer worlds. At first, they were but an idle curiosity for a Church fully engrossed in other, more immediate challenges and natural phenomena. There were hundreds upon hundreds of anomalies among the stars that seemed much more relevant to the interests of humanity. Much like hundreds of times before, there were those who proclaimed the end of the world(s) when the skies darkened. But as the months wore on, nothing happened. The doomsayers were quietly removed from society and life went on.

Everything changed in an instant.

The Empire of Terra had deployed dozens of sensor platforms as Constantine had declared necessary for safeguarding the faithful. Over the course of several hours, one by one the stations reported flocks of contacts. What came next was much, much worse than any could have imagined. Images of great armadas emerging from the interstellar blackness beamed back to Terra. Shining silver ships cloaked in great fields of blackness belched energy weapons that far outstripped those of the Church. The story was the same across the breadth of the frontier: almost contemptuously they ground through armor plates and silenced weapons emplacements one by one. Boarding pods forced their way aboard the stations full of many-legged abominations. The only exposition offered by those shadows was chilling to the core.

“Fear is the most ancient emotion of life. We will teach you fear.”

But space is vast, and for all the terrifying power of the Dark Ones (as they were named, following the mythos of the Ancient Guardians) it took time to travel from system to system. As outposts and mining operations leading towards the inhabited core were silenced, the Church drew up a cordon and declared there would not be one step back. Thousands of ships were built on the backs of tithes long accumulated, and billions of volunteers crewed not only their many weapons but the ground forces that were raised on each and every planet. Civilian contractors were paid handsomely to construct dozens of fortified positions across each moon, each planet in the inhabited systems. Even Holy Terra changed to meet the threat; the last untouched continent was ravaged for its' resources and then heavily industrialized with the factories to produce weapons of ever-growing power.

Even as the technological gap closed, the Dark Ones swept inward like a wave smashing a sand-castle. Whole fleets were broken and reformed in a desperate bid to hold the line, and yet satellite systems providing resources to the population were wiped out sequentially. For every invading destroyer broken by the Church, a dozen of its' own were left drifting in space. Millions died aboard vessels daily to hold the howling night away from their fellow man. And so it went for months, where titanic conflict was the norm.

Thousands of ships broke hyperspace on the outskirts of the Kantras Gula system, where dozens of hyper-deny platforms were deployed thick enough to prevent invasion from many vectors. This halted the invaders for the few minutes required to blast the platforms into oblivion and recharge their warp drives. Conflict snarled across the system as Home Fleet fought desperately to defend each bastion from destruction. In a hideous caricature of a countdown, the Dark Ones attacked each planet in turn, until none was left until Holy Terra itself. The legions of hardened soldiers and billions of militiamen mustered nervously to repel the coming invasion from the worshiped soil of Terra herself. It was all for naught. An absolutely massive ship broke through from warp just outside range of Nexus Base's weaponry bearing the hideous colors of the Dark Ones. Slowly, energy readings from the bowels of the massive ship built up to unthinkable levels. The moon-sized ship broadcast a single transmission across the system, the second received from the invaders during the entire war.

“The darkness is the only way. We have returned.”

The massive ship fired at Terra itself.

–

Commodore Nikolais woke up screaming, drenched in a cold sweat. He looked around in stark terror at the shadows in his room. The panic-induced haze over his mind gradually eased, and he was able to realize that his dream was exactly that. As he sat in the bed, his mind raced frantically through the vivid scenes he had envisioned; all of it seemed so real. The blight across the stars, the slow encirclement of the Empire, and the lightning blitz into the heart of the Church itself when the slightest hope of surviving had surfaced.

'We have returned...' he thought to himself.

Why did it sound so familiar?

(A/N: Trying to get back into the swing of things; played a what-if continuation of the game where expansion was severely limited and all attempts at communication by the other races were ignored. This, combined with lackluster research due to the stratified Church resulted in a horrible attrition struggle across multiple systems where hopelessly outclassed ships tried to break down shields. I poured all my cash into crash research at that time and managed some decent railguns, but just as those new designs began replacing the hundreds of cannon-fodders ships fighting almost continuously in a couple of defense fleets and two bigger reserve/reaction fleets, the Shakturi AI pulled something really smart and went straight for the heart. Possibly the best game I've ever played.)